First some background.
For several years now it has been obvious that many predictive telemarketing outfits, pollsters included, want to speak to women only. If a male answers the phone, they hang up. Being devious, not to mention pissed that these calls persist in nagging me at home while I’m trying to work, I long ago started to answer likely telemarketing calls with my best falsetto. Bingo. No hang-ups and some very surprised survey takers.
Yesterday it was the NC Democratic Party’s turn to be surprised by my routine. They had called before and hung up. When the out-of-area 1-000-000-0000 Caller ID popped up again — a spoof I believe is illegal, btw — I was ready. “Hello?,” Mrs. Doubtfire offered. Snag. My questioner, Ian I think he said his name was, gave a long “uhhhh” when I dropped into my normal register.
The poll was boring enough, focused on the presidential, senatorial, and gubernatorial races. Kept offering me the duopoly choice between GOP and Demo candidates, to which I answered “neither” just to see what happened. Nothing. I have no idea if my answers were tallied. Asked on scale of 1 to 5 how likely I’d be to vote for Obama, if I preferred pro-choice or pro-life candidates, if we should stay in Iraq or not, and — this was the final question — if I thought my neighbors were ready for a black president.
That last one tells me Demos are trying to fix the number of voters who are with them on the issues, but have problems with the race of their presidential candidate. This would be a very interesting number to know as it limits the pool of potential Obama voters and will drive the amount of resources the campaign puts into winning North Carolina.
